Manufacture of pile fabrics



May 19, 1936. R. P. FVEZRRERAIS ,040,840

MANUFACTURE OF PILE FABRICS Filed Aug. 24, 1952 Patented May 19, 1936 UNITE STATES MANUFACTURE OF PILE FABRICS Rafael Pons Ferreras, Sarria, Barcelona, Spain, assignor to Pedro J Smith, New York, N. Y.

Application August 24, 1932, Serial No. 630,193

In Spain September 1, 1931 4 Claims.

The invention relates to the manufacture of pile fabrics and its object is to reduce their cost by simplifying the machinery required, increasing the rate of production and eliminating the waste occasioned by the production of large quantities of seconds or imperfect goods as results from the methods currently employed.

Heretofore such fabrics have been manufactured by weaving cloth with closely spaced loops formed by warp threads Woven over wires or rods having enlarged, knife-like heads which serve to split or sever the loops when the wires are pulled through and out of the latter; or by weaving the loops over small U-shaped rods and cutting the loops open by the action of knives or rotary hand cutters which run across the face of the fabric entering the U of the rods and thereby severing the loop threads. Another method of forming pile fabric requires the weaving of double cloth with threads running from one to the other, these connecting threads being severed, either at the loom or afterwards, to produce two pieces of cloth each having a pile. In this method the faces of the fabrics are concealed from view during the weaving and severing, with the result that the percentage of seconds is unduly high. Weft pile fabrics, on the other hand, are produced by weaving a cloth having a great number of weft loops, which are bastes, flat on the cloth, required to be entered by some distending means to enable them to be severed, likewise a delicate operation resulting in a large proportion of seconds.

In each of these prior methods, whether performed by knives alone or supplemented by hot Wire or like devices, the loops are simply cut, or severed, at one point, namely, at the apex or mid-point of each loop, the severing means passing either outwardly away from the fabric or inwardly toward the fabric, in both cases merely dividing or parting, as it were, the two thread portions forming the sides of the loop and not actually removing any of the loop structure.

Greater speed and higher production and hence lower production cost are accomplished by the present invention which permits the use of terry-cloth, that is, a fabric woven by the terry-cloth method or terry-cloth looms, or any other fabric having the necessary upstanding loops regardless of whether the latter are of uniform height or not in exact alignment as they are required to be with present methods; the loops instead of being individually cut or split open are converted into pile threads by actually decapitating the heads of the loops, that is to say, removing, by burning of]? or otherwise, the entire top of each loop including a part of each of the thread portions forming the sides of the, loop. Considered as a shearing operation it involves the cutting of each loop at two points, adjacent but slightly below the apex of the loop, as distinguished from the single-cut severing above alluded to.

Although the method of this invention involves a certain waste of material, that is to say, of the material of the loops which is out 01f, removed or destroyed, it is found that this item of waste is insignificant as compared to the economy resulting from the rapid action and efficiency of the new process and the simplified machinery that it requires.

While the invention may be performed by various instrumentalities, as above indicated, it is preferred to use a form of what would ordinarily be termed a singeing machine, but so adjusted as to effect an actual burning off of the entire heads of the loops. The drawing shows the use of one form of such a machine but only in a schematic way, Fig. 1 being a diagram of the principal elements and Fig. 2 a detail thereof.

The terry cloth represented at l, or like type of fabric having upstanding loops woven into it, is passed continuously first over a steam chest 2 by which it is heated, and then over a support in the form of a roller 3 which may also be steamheated. Neither the heating of the fabric nor the particular manner of applying the heat is indispensable to the invention, but heating is preferred. While passing over the support or roller, the loops are brought into the action of burner 4 having a row of minute, closely-spaced and equal gas flames and arranged adjustably in any suitable way so as to have a predetermined and proper relation to the cloth on the roller. By properly relating the position of the burner and for the size of the flames as well as the speed of the fabric through the action thereof, the heads of the loops can be burned off to a closely uniform and predetermined degree all across the face of the fabric, thus making two pile threads of each loop and making all such threads of substantially uniform height. The loops in the drawing Will be understood to, be exaggerated in scale for the sake of the illustration.

Associated with the burner, or other decapitating means as the case may be, and as close thereto as practical without interfering with its action, there is located a suction head 5 with a high speed rotary brush 6, preferably but not necessarily contained in the head and acting on the fabric to remove the loop-heads or cinders. Such brush acts on the cloth oppositely to its direction of travel over the support and cleans the cloth of most of the discoloration resulting from the combustion, after which the cloth is then bleached or dyed, according to preference, which either removesor conceals, as the case may be, the slight remaining discoloration, whereupon and after any necessary further finishing treatment the cloth is ready for market. The usual finish- ,flame or a hot curved plate can beused, such plate being kept red hot byheat applied to its concave face, and engaging the loop-heads by its "convex surfaceas has been used in singeing knife-cut: corduroy; or thdecaiaitation of the loops can be done 'in a rotary shearing'machine 'of' a' type known to the textile industry.

9 Having described the'invention the following is'claimed: V

1. The process of making pile fabrics which consists in continuously uniformly burning off the heads of the loops of terry cloth.

2. The process of making'pile fabrics which consists in continuously passing terry cloth into the action of a burning element, at a speed so regulated as to uniformly and continuously burn off the heads .of the loops thereof and simulta: neously removing the cinders.

3. The process of making pile fabrics which consists in continuously burning off the heads of the loops thereof of terry cloth to a uniform heightand thereafter treating the decapitated loops to remove the charred effect from the ends of the pile threads formed thereby.

4. The method of making pile fabric which consists in continuously passing a fabric having upstanding loops into the field of action of burning means arranged to decapitate a plurality of i loops into pile ofsubstanially uniform height less than that of the original loops.

RAFAEL PONS FERRERAS. 

